System and method for document branching

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are systems and methods for document branching. In some embodiments, the method includes the steps of: obtaining a branch model associated with a set of related documents, the branch model comprising one or more branches, each branch of the one or more branches comprising a branch type and one or more nodes, the one or more branches comprising a primary branch associated with a primary document, the set of related documents comprising the primary document having a first document identifier; generating a secondary branch based upon a revision of the primary document, the secondary branch associated with a secondary document of the set of related documents, the secondary document having a second document identifier; and adding the secondary branch to the branch model.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. Pat. Application No.17/882,257, filed Aug. 5, 2022, which is a continuation of U.S. Pat.Application No. 17/207,110, filed Mar. 19, 2021, now U.S. Pat. No.11,443,108, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Pat. Application No.16/994,944, filed Aug. 17, 2020, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,100,281. Thisapplication is related to U.S. Pat. Application No. 16/292,701, filedMar. 5, 2019, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,733,369, which is a continuation ofU.S. Pat. Application No. 16/008,295, filed Jun. 14, 2018, now U.S. Pat.No. 10,275,441, which is a divisional of U.S. Pat. Application No.15/922,424, filed Mar. 15, 2018, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,255,263, which isa continuation-in-part of U.S. Pat. Application No. 15/188,200, filedJun. 21, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,019,433, which is a continuation ofU.S. Pat. Application No. 14/850,156, filed Sep. 10, 2015, now U.S. Pat.No. 9,378,269, which is a continuation of U.S. Pat. Application No.14/714,845, filed May 18, 2015, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,158,832. Thisapplication is also related to U.S. Pat. Application No. 16/871,512,filed on May 11, 2020. Each of the above documents is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to electronic documentmanagement and, more particularly, to a data storage and retrievalsystem and method for maintaining links, revisions, translations,reviews, comments, and other information in a plurality of documents.

BACKGROUND

Keeping track of different types of data entries and interdependenciesamong the different entries is a task for which computers are ideallysuited, and modem society depends heavily on this capability. Fromsocial networking platforms to financial analysis applications,computers, along with robust communication networks, are able topropagate a change in one data item (e.g., a change in a cell of aspreadsheet or a change in a user’s status on a social network) to otherdata items (e.g., a recalculation of a formula in a spreadsheet or anupdate of an emoticon on the devices of the user’s friends).

One problem that arises with propagating changes among manyinterdependent data entries is that it can be very slow when the numberof entries and interdependencies is high and when the entries are storedacross different documents, databases, servers and differentgeographical locations of the servers. For example, those who work withlarge spreadsheets are familiar with the experience in which, when achange is made to one cell of a spreadsheet, the spreadsheet programspends a long time updating itself repeatedly as the formulas dependingon the changed cell get recalculated, the formulas depending on thoseformulas get recalculated, and so on. Dependencies that cross documentsor servers create similar delays.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

While the appended claims set forth the features of the presenttechniques with particularity, these techniques, together with theirobjects and advantages, may be best understood from the followingdetailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawingsof which:

FIG. 1 is an example of a networking environment in which variousembodiments of the disclosure may be implemented, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a computing device, according to anembodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example database configured to storeworkspaces with separate revision counters using the computing device ofFIG. 2 , according to an embodiment;

FIGS. 4A to 4E and FIGS. 5A to 5E are diagrams showing a sequence oftimeslices of revisions to spreadsheets with cells having formuladependencies and linking dependencies using document revision counters,according to an embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram showing a sequence of revisions to documentsusing a workspace revision counter and document revision counters,according to an embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram showing a sequence of revisions to documentshaving separate branches using a workspace revision counter and documentrevision counters, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram showing a sequence of revisions to documentsand integration of those revisions into other branches, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram showing a sequence of revisions to documentsusing a workspace revision counter and a workspace revision queue wheretemporary revisions are displayed;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example method, implemented on aserver, for rendering linked content in a first document having a tablewith a plurality of cells, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 11A shows one example of a branch model, in accordance with certainembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11B shows another example of a branch model, in accordance withcertain embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 illustrates one example of a document data structure using abranch model, in accordance with certain embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating one example of a method for using abranch model, in accordance with certain embodiments of the presentdisclosure; and

FIG. 14 is a data diagram of one example of a branch model, inaccordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In systems configured to maintain multiple documents with variousdependencies on each other, and particularly those with dozens ofdocuments of different types, the accuracy of a report or displayedoutput that purports to capture a “snapshot” or “time slice” of thecontent of the documents may depend upon whether a change in onedocument has propagated to another document. In some scenarios, a userviewing several documents at the same time, but where those documentsare only a subset of the entire set of documents, may not be able toview an accurate snapshot until the changes have been propagated acrossthe entire set. As one example, when a cell in a spreadsheet is used asa “source” for content displayed in a “destination” 10-K financialdocument and also used in a destination Exhibit document, a change madeto the source spreadsheet may be propagated to the 10-K document first(i.e., before the change has propagated to the Exhibit), so at a certaintime slice, the 10-K document has been updated, but the Exhibit documenthas not yet been updated, and a user viewing both the 10-K document andthe Exhibit document at the same time may become confused when entriesbetween the destination documents, with purportedly the same values, donot match each other.

Disclosed herein is a system for maintaining links, revisions, reviews,comments, translations, and other information for a plurality ofdocuments. Various embodiments of the disclosure are implemented in acomputer networking environment. In some embodiments, the system isconfigured to receive requests that indicate revisions to be carried outon the plurality of documents where at least one of the requestscorresponds to revisions for different documents of the plurality ofdocuments. The plurality of documents may be referred to herein as a“workspace,” for example, a shared repository of a group of documentsfor a corporation or business unit. For each of the received requests, aworkspace revision counter that is shared by the plurality of documentsis incremented. The workspace revision counter indicates a revisionstate of the plurality of documents. In other words, the workspacerevision counter indicates a revision state of the documents as anintegral data unit, as opposed to separate data units for each documentwith respective document revision counters. A revision indicated by arequest is caused to be performed on one or more documents thatcorrespond to the request. In some scenarios, a single request indicateschanges to multiple documents, for example, a request to update a linkbetween a source element and a destination element.

Turning to FIG. 1 , an example of a computer networking environment inwhich various embodiments of the disclosure may be implemented is shown.A first computing device 100 is communicatively linked to a network 102.Possible implementations of the network 102 include a local-areanetwork, a wide-area network, a private network, a public network (e.g.,the Internet), or any combination of these. The network 102 may includeboth wired and wireless components. Also communicatively linked to thenetwork 102 are a second computing device 104 a, a third computingdevice 104 b, a fourth computing device 104 c, and a fifth computingdevice 106. The fifth computing device 106 is communicatively linked toa media storage device 108 (e.g., a redundant array of independentdisks). For the sake of example, it is assumed that a first user 120operates the second computing device 104 a, a second user 122 operatesthe third computing device 104 b, and a third user 124 operates thefourth computing device 104 c. Each of the computing devices 104 a, 104b, and 104 c executes client software (reference numerals 105 a, 105 b,and 105 c, respectively). One possible implementation of the clientsoftware is a web browser.

Residing within the media storage device 108 is a database 108 acontaining multiple documents, three of which are depicted in FIG. 1 : afirst document 114, a second document 116, and a third document 118. Thefirst computing device 100 and the fifth computing device 106 aredepicted as rack-mounted servers, while the second, third, and fourthcomputing devices 104 a, 104 b, and 104 c are depicted as a notebookcomputers. However, the computing devices depicted in FIG. 1 are merelyrepresentative. Other possible implementations of a computing deviceinclude a desktop computer, a tablet computing, and a smartphone.Furthermore, although the first, second, and third documents 114, 116,and 118 are depicted as being stored in a single device, they may, infact, be stored on multiple storage devices (e.g., sharded into multiplephysical chunks) of a cloud storage service. Finally, there may be morethan or fewer than the first, second, and third documents 114, 116, and118 residing on the media storage device 108.

In various embodiments, at least some documents are stored using asuitable data structure configured to maintain links and referencesbetween cells, tables, paragraphs, sections, or other suitable portionsof a document. In an embodiment, documents are stored using an RTree (atype of logic tree) data structure. In another embodiment, documents arestored using a causal tree data structure.

In an embodiment, the system includes a computing device that configuresthe computer memory according to a causal tree (a type of logic tree)representing a structure of a document. The computer memory may beinternal to or external to the computing device. Causal tree structuresare useful representations of how content and metadata associated withthe content are organized. For example, a document may be represented bya single causal tree structure or a bounded set of causal treestructures. The causal tree structure is useful in efficiently trackingand storing changes made in the document. A typical causal treestructure includes nodes of the editing instructions in the document,and each editing instruction has a unique identifier or ID. The editinginstructions include, for example, text characters, insertion of textcharacters, deletion of text characters, formatting instructions, copyand paste, cut and paste, etc. In other words, a causal tree structureis a representation of all the instructions (regardless of type) thatcompose a document. The causal tree structure starts with a root nodeand a collection of observation instances, from which all otherinstruction nodes branch. Except for the root node and observations,each editing instruction in the document is caused by whichever editinginstruction that came before it. Every editing instruction is aware ofthe ID of its parent instruction, i.e., the instruction that “caused”it. In an embodiment, each instruction (other than the root node andobservations) in the document may be represented as a 3-tuple: ID (ID ofthe instruction), CauseID (ID of the parent instruction), and Value(value of the instruction). Observations have a 3-tuple: ID (ID of theinstruction), Start ID (ID of the first character in a range), and StopID (ID of character immediately after the last character in a rangeunless the same as the Start ID which indicates only a single characteris to be observed). Additional instructions may be added to anobservation to provide additional information or to modify the rangebeing observed. Examples of observations are discussed in U.S. Pat.Application No. 16/871,512.

In an embodiment, the system includes a computing device that configuresthe computer memory according to an RTree (a type of logic tree)representing a structure of a spreadsheet or other document. Thecomputer memory may be internal to or external to the computing device.In an embodiment, the RTree has a plurality of nodes, at least some ofwhich contain one or more minimum bounding rectangles. Each minimumbounding rectangle (“MBR”) encompasses cells of the spreadsheet from adifferent one of a plurality of columns of the spreadsheet, but does notencompass cells of any of the other columns of the plurality of columns.A node of the RTree may hold multiple MBRs or a single MBR.

For convenient reference, the first computing device 100 will also bereferred to as a “productivity server 100” and the fifth computingdevice 106 will be also be referred to as a “database server 106.”Although depicted in FIG. 1 as separate devices, in some embodiments,the functionality of the productivity server 100 and the database server106 are on the same device. The productivity server 100 executesproductivity software 101 to provide document collaboration services.The database server 106 executes Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) platformsoftware 107 to provide database services to the productivity software101, such as maintaining the contents of the database 108 a andproviding a programming platform for various processes launched by theproductivity software (e.g., to manipulate, store, and retrievedocuments and other information from the database 108 a). Under thecontrol of the productivity software 101, the productivity server 100interacts with the database server 106 (which operates under the controlof the SaaS platform software 107) and the computing devices 104 a, 104b, and 104 c (also referred to as “client devices”) to allow thecomputing devices to access the first document 114, the second document116, and the third document 118 so that the first user 120, the seconduser 122, and the third user 124 can collaborate in editing thedocuments (e.g., moving sections around in a particular document).

In an embodiment, documents maintained on the media storage device 108may be organized into sections, with each section (e.g., the contents ofthe section) being maintained in its own separate data structurereferred to as a “section entity.” For example, the first document 114in FIG. 1 has a first section represented by a first section entity 130,a second section represented by a second section entity 132, and a thirdsection represented by a third section entity 134. The productivitysoftware 101 uses an outline entity 136 (also stored on the mediastorage device) to determine how the sections are organized.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a computing device 200, according to anembodiment. One or more of the computing devices of FIG. 1 (includingthe media storage device 108) have the general architecture shown inFIG. 2 , in various embodiments. The device depicted in FIG. 2 includesa processor 152 (e.g., a microprocessor, controller, orapplication-specific integrated circuit), a primary memory 154 (e.g.,volatile memory, random-access memory), a secondary memory 156 (e.g.,non-volatile memory, solid state drive, hard disk drive), user inputdevices 158 (e.g., a keyboard, mouse, or touchscreen), a display 160(e.g., an organic, light-emitting diode display), and a networkinterface 162 (which may be wired or wireless). The memories 154 and 156store instructions and data. The processor 152 executes the instructionsand uses the data to carry out various procedures including, in someembodiments, the methods described herein.

Each of the elements of FIG. 2 is communicatively linked to one or moreother elements via one or more data pathways 163. Possibleimplementations of the data pathways 163 include wires, conductivepathways on a microchip, and wireless connections. In an embodiment, theprocessor 152 is one of multiple processors in the computing device,each of which is capable of executing one or more separate threads. Inan embodiment, the processor 152 communicates with other processorsexternal to the computing device in order to initiate the execution ofdifferent threads on those other processors.

The term “local memory” as used herein refers to one or both of thememories 154 and 156 (i.e., memory accessible by the processor 152within the computing device). In some embodiments, the secondary memory156 is implemented as, or supplemented by an external memory 156A. Themedia storage device 108 is a possible implementation of the externalmemory 156A. The processor 152 executes the instructions and uses thedata to carry out various procedures including, in some embodiments, themethods described herein, including displaying a graphical userinterface 169. The graphical user interface 169 is, according to oneembodiment, software that the processor 152 executes to display a reporton the display device 160, and which permits a user to make inputs intothe report via the user input devices 168.

The computing devices of FIG. 1 (i.e., the processor 152 of each of thecomputing devices) are able to communicate with other devices of FIG. 1via the network interface 162 over the network 152. In an embodiment,this communication takes place via a user interface that theproductivity server 150 provides to the computing devices 154 a, 154 b,and 154 c. The specific nature of the user interface and what the userinterface shows at any given time may vary depending on what the userhas chosen to view. Also, multiple users may interact with differentinstances of the user interface on different devices. In someembodiments, the productivity server 150 carries out calculations todetermine how content is to be rendered on a computing device, generatesrendering instructions based on those calculations, and transmits thoserendering instructions to the computing device. Using the receivedinstructions, the computing device renders the content on a display. Inother embodiments, the productivity server 150 transmits instructionsregarding an asset to a computing device. In carrying out the receivedinstructions, the computing device performs the appropriate calculationslocally to render the content of the asset on a display.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example database 300 configured to storeworkspaces with separate revision counters using the computing device ofFIG. 2 . In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 , the database 300 generallycorresponds to the database 108 a and includes the first document 114,the second document 116, and the third document 118. In otherembodiments, the database 300 includes one, two, four, or moredocuments.

In various embodiments, the database 300 includes a first workspace 310having a document table 320, a workspace revision queue 330, and aworkspace revision counter 340. The first workspace 310 represents ashared repository of a plurality of documents. In some scenarios, therepository is associated with a corporation, business unit, user group,or other entity. The plurality of documents may be of the same ordifferent types in various embodiments, for example, spreadsheetdocuments, text documents, presentation documents, or other suitabledocument types. In an embodiment, the workspace 310 is configured tostore the plurality of documents (i.e., documents 114, 116, and 118), orsuitable data structures associated with the documents, in the documenttable 320.

The workspace revision counter 340 (or “workspace level revisioncounter”) is configured to be shared by the plurality of documents andindicates a revision state of the plurality of documents at any givenpoint in time. In other words, the workspace revision counter 340indicates a revision state of the plurality of documents as an integraldata unit, as opposed to separate document revision counters forindividual documents (“document level revision counters”). The workspacerevision counter 340 is a workspace level revision for grouping therevision of all workspace content at any given point in time within aworkspace. By sharing the workspace revision counter 340 among theplurality of documents, a change or revision to any single documentcauses an increment to the workspace revision counter 340. As anexample, when a first change to a first document in the workspace 310increments the workspace revision counter from 7 to 8, then a secondchange to a second document in the workspace 310 occurring after thefirst change increments the workspace revision counter 340 from 8 to 9.In a further example, the workspace revision counter 340 is incrementedfrom 9 to 10 when a third change to the first document is requested.

The workspace revision queue 330 is configured to store revisions to theplurality of documents, more specifically, requests for revisions. Theworkspace revision queue 330 is shared by the plurality of documents andstores revisions to different documents of the plurality of documents.In various embodiments, the workspace revision queue 330 is a queue forordering requests for revisions in an linear fashion across the entireworkspace. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 , using the above example,the first change to the first document, the second change to the seconddocument, and the third change to the first document are queued asrevisions 332, 334, and 336. In an embodiment, the computing device 200processes or performs the revisions in the workspace revision queue 330in a first in, first out (FIFO) manner. In other embodiments, thecomputing device 200 prioritizes at least some of the revisions, forexample, based on a priority level of the corresponding document to berevised, a priority level of a user that requested the revision, orother suitable criteria. In some embodiments, the computing device 200groups at least some of the revisions in the workspace revision queue330, for example, according to whether the revisions can be performed inparallel.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 , the database 300 also includes asecond workspace 350 having a document table 370, a workspace revisionqueue 380, and a workspace revision counter 390 (analogous to thedocument table 320, the workspace revision queue 330, and the workspacerevision counter 340). In some embodiments, the database 300 isconfigured to provide a separate workspace for different pluralities ofdocuments, for example, for different corporations, business units, usergroups, or other entities.

In some embodiments, the database 300 includes a document revision queuefor one or more of the plurality of documents. The document revisionqueue is configured to store temporary copies of revision and is notshared among the plurality of documents, but is instead specific to aparticular document. In an embodiment, for example, the first document114 includes a document revision queue 314. The document revision queueallows for separate versions or branches of a document to be maintainedconcurrently, as described herein. In an embodiment, the documentrevision queue is specific to a locked section of a document where thelocked section is a section of the document that is restricted fromediting by users outside of an editing group.

FIGS. 4A to 4E and FIGS. 5A to 5E are diagrams showing a sequence oftimeslices for revisions to spreadsheets with cells having formuladependencies and linking dependencies using document revision counters.In the embodiment shown, the sequence shows revisions to a firstspreadsheet document (referred to herein as “Sheetl”) and a secondspreadsheet document (“Sheet2”) with versions indicated as “v1”, “v2”,and so on. Notably, the version numbers of the documents are independentof each other. For ease of description, only two columns (“A” and “B”)and two rows (“1” and “2”) are shown in FIGS. 4A to 4E and FIGS. 5A to5E.

FIG. 4A shows an initial state of the documents with both the firstdocument and the second document at version 1 (“Sheet1_v1” and“Sheet2_v1”) with empty cells. At FIG. 4B, Sheet1 has been modified andadvances to revision 2 (“v2”) to include a formula in cell B1,specifically, a summation of the values in column A (“=SUM(A)=0”). Sincecells A1 and A2 are empty, the summation of cell B1 of Sheet1 in FIG. 4Bis zero. At FIG. 4C, Sheet2 has been modified and advances to revision2, where cell A1 of Sheet2 contains a link to cell B1 of Sheet1 (thelink is represented by “S1B1”) and cell A2 contains a formula thatrelies upon cell A1 (“=A1*3=0”). The link indicates that cell B1 ofSheet1 is a source element for cell A1 of Sheet2, which is a destinationelement. At FIG. 4D, Sheet1 has been modified and advances to version 3(“v3”), where cell B2 contains a link to cell A2 of Sheet2 (the link isrepresented by “S2A2”). In other words, cell A2 of Sheet2 is the sourceof the link, and cell B2 of Sheet1 the destination of the link.

As used herein, a link is a reference, pointer, or data structure thatrefers to linked content (or the location of the linked content), whilelinked content is a set of content, for example, a set of one or morecharacters or numbers, a set of one or more sentences, a set of one ormore paragraphs, a set of one or more cells within a spreadsheet, a setof one or more images, or various combinations thereof. For example, inFIG. 4C, the value 0 in cell A1 of Sheet2 is the linked content, and“S1B1” is a representation that indicate that cell A1 of Sheet2 containsa link. Although “S1B1” and “S2A2” are used to represent links in FIGS.4C to 4E and 5A to 4E, the user interface may not display theserepresentations. In various implementations, no visual indicator ordifferent visual indicators (e.g., icons, underlining, different fontcolor or font face, different background color, a box that surrounds thelink, etc.) may be used to indicate the existence of a link, the sourceof a link, or the destination of a link. In other embodiments, a usermay need to perform another gesture on the user interface (e.g., hover,right click, double click, etc.) to trigger the display of the source(s)or destination(s) of a link (e.g., via a pop-up panel or side panel). Inan embodiment, the linked set of content contains a plurality ofelements (i.e., characters, cells, paragraphs, etc.) that appearconsecutively within a document, for example, cells A4 through A7 of aspreadsheet or sentences one through five of a text document. In anotherembodiment, the linked set of content contains a plurality of elementsthat do not appear consecutively, for example, cells B18:C20 of aspreadsheet (i.e., cells B18, B19, B20, C18, C19, and C20).

At FIG. 4E, Sheet 1 has been modified and advances to version 4 (“v4”),where cell A1 has a value of 1 and cell B1, based on its formula, hasits displayed value changed to 1. In some scenarios, the link of cell A1in Sheet2 is not immediately updated, for example, due to processingdelays associated with identifying when a source element has changed.Accordingly, at the timeslice shown in FIG. 4E, Sheet2 has not yet beenupdated to a new version.

At FIG. 5A, the link of cell A1 in Sheet2 has been updated to includethe appropriate value from source element B1 of Sheet1 (“1”), cell A2 inSheet2 is being processed to calculate its formula, and Sheet2 advancedto version 3. In some scenarios, the formula in cell A2 is relativelycomplex and may have a long processing time (e.g., several minutes ormore) before its value has been determined. In other scenarios, theformula may refer to an external source (e.g., a document outside of theworkspace 310) that may have reduced availability or delayed updates,for example, by being stored on a remote computer. In still otherscenarios, the formula may include a link to another “busy” documentthat is being used by many other users so that access to its data isdelayed.

At FIG. 5B, the formula in cell A2 of Sheet2 has been calculated, avalue of “2” has been inserted in cell A2 of Sheet1, the formula in cellB1 of Sheet1 is updated to a value of 3, and Sheet1 has advanced toversion 4 (“v5”), but the link in cell B2 of Sheet1 has not yet beenupdated with the result of the formula in cell A2 of Sheet2. At thistimeslice, Sheet1 is inconsistent with itself because the value of cellA2 in Sheet2 has not propagated to cell B2 of Sheet1. Moreover, Sheet2is not consistent with Sheet1 because cell A1 of Sheet2 has not beenupdated with the updated value (“3”) of cell B1 of Sheet1.

At FIG. 5C, cell B2 of Sheet1 has been updated to the most recentconfirmed value of its link to cell A2 of Sheet2 and Sheet1 advances toversion 6 (“v6”). Additionally, cell A1 of Sheet2 is updated to the mostrecent value of source cell B1 and Sheet2 advances to version 4 (“v4”).At FIG. 5D, cell A2 of Sheet2 has been calculated, but the value is notpropagated to cell B2 of Sheet1 until FIG. 5E.

One solution to the problem of propagating values, either throughformulas or links, is to utilize the workspace revision counter 340.Although the workspace revision counter 340 may be incremented moreoften and more quickly than individual document revision counters, theworkspace revision counter 340 provides a single value that can bereferenced to refer to a single timeslice for all documents in theworkspace 310 where all values have been propagated.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram showing a sequence 600 of revisions todocuments using a workspace revision counter, for example, the workspacerevision counter 340, according to an embodiment. In the embodimentshown in FIG. 6 , first and second documents (“Doc1” and “Doc2”) areprovided for editing to various clients (including Users 1, 2, 3, and 4)by a frontend user interface (“frontend”). In some embodiments, thefrontend user interface is provided by the first computing device 100,the fifth computing device 106, or another suitable computing device. Insome embodiments, the clients utilize respective ones of the computingdevices 104 a, 104 b, 104 c. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 , User1and User3 modify the first document, while User2 and User4 modify thesecond document, via respective user interfaces. Although only twodocuments and four clients are shown, in other embodiments, the frontendmay provide hundreds of documents to hundreds of clients concurrently.

During block 610, User1 sends a request for a revision to the firstdocument (“EditDoc(doc1, ...)”) and the request is received by thefrontend. In some scenarios, the request includes one, two, three, ormore revisions. The frontend causes the revision to be performed on thefirst document, for example, by updating the first document within thedatabase 108 a, and increments a document revision counter (“Doc 1.revision+ I″). The frontend provides the updated document revisioncounter (“2”) to the User1.

During block 615, the frontend increments the workspace revision counter340, resulting in a new value of “75”. Although the most recent revisionincremented the document revision counter of the first document to “2”,the workspace revision counter 340 is utilized for each document in theworkspace 310, so its value is higher than the document revisioncounter.

During block 620, User2 sends a request for a revision to the seconddocument (“EditDoc(doc2, ...)”) and the request is received by thefrontend. The frontend causes the revision to be performed on the seconddocument, for example, by updating the first document within thedatabase 108 a, and increments a document revision counter(“Doc2.revision+1”). The frontend provides the updated document revisioncounter (“12”) to the User2.

During block 625, the frontend increments the workspace revision counter340, resulting in a new value of “76”. Notably, revisions to both thefirst document and the second document result in updates to the samecounter, specifically, the workspace revision counter 340. Subsequentrevisions to the first document at block 630 and to the second documentat block 640 include increments to the respective document revisioncounters and are also followed by updates to the workspace revisioncounter 340 at blocks 635 and 645.

In another embodiment, if a first document contains the source elementof a link and a second document contains the destination element of thelink, then when a user sends a request to edit the source element of thelink (e.g., linked content or other properties of the link) in the firstdocument, the request will also trigger a request to edit thedestination element of the link in the second document. In other words,when a user makes a revision to the source element of the link in thefirst document, the revision is propagated to the destination element ofthe link in the second document. In this instance, the document revisioncounter of the first document will increment by 1, the document revisioncounter of the second document will increment by 1, and the workspacelevel counter will also increment by 1.

Cloud-based document collaboration platforms tend to be fully open andcollaborative. That is, all users who are invited to edit a document(e.g., text document, graphics-based document, spreadsheet, or a hybridof one or more of the foregoing) are able to see one another’s edits inreal time or nearly real time. However, there are many scenarios inwhich one or more users would prefer not to share their draft workproduct with other collaborators. In these scenarios, the user (or groupof users) may create a branch of the document, or a branch of a portionthereof (e.g., a section of a document), where read and/or write accessto the branch is limited to themselves only (a “private user”) or tothemselves and any additional users (a “private group”). Once a sectionbecomes private, users other than the private user or those not withinthe private group will not be able to see additional edits being madebut will only see the state of the section as it was just prior to beingtaken private. The private user or a user within the private group(assuming they have sufficient permission) can choose to make the editspublic, which unlocks the private section and allows the rest of thecollaborators to view the changes and to make their own edits to thesection if desired.

In an embodiment, edits to the document are managed through the use of acausal tree or causal graph, and when a section of the document is takenprivate, the document collaboration system creates a copy of therelevant segment or segments of the causal tree or causal graph, usesthe segment or segments to keep track of the edits and, when the sectionis subsequently made public, merges the segment or segments into theoriginal causal graph.

In another embodiment, edits to the document are managed through the useof an Rtree (also referred to herein as “R-Tree”), and when a section ofthe document is taken private, the document collaboration system createsa copy of the relevant segment or segments of the Rtree, uses thesegment or segments to keep track of the edits and, when the section issubsequently made public, merges the segment or segments into theoriginal Rtree.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram showing a sequence 700 of revisions todocuments having separate branches using a workspace revision counterand document revision counters, for example, the workspace revisioncounter 340. The embodiment shown in FIG. 7 is similar to that of FIG. 6, where first and second documents (“Doc1” and “Doc2”) are provided forediting to various clients (including Users 1, 2, 3, and 4) by afrontend user interface (“frontend”).

In the embodiment of FIG. 7 , the revisions to the first and seconddocuments are initially stored in a separate branch that may be combinedwith a main branch at a later time, discarded, or maintained separatelyfrom one or more other branches. As an example, a secondary branch ofthe first document 114 may be edited and reviewed by a user and changesby the user may be stored and managed in the document revision queue 314without affecting a main branch of the first document 114. When thechanges from the user are to be finalized and incorporated into the mainbranch (e.g., to publish an update to a publicly available document),the changes to the document may be incorporated into the main branch,for example, by merging or rebasing. In various embodiments, the mainbranch and any secondary branches are identified by respective branchidentifiers (“branch IDs”), for example, a unique identifier, that allowrevisions in a secondary branch to be incorporated into a main branch,revisions in a main branch to be incorporated into a secondary branch,etc.

Merging generally corresponds to a process of comparing a secondarybranch to a main branch and making any needed changes to the main branchto be consistent with the secondary branch. Rebasing generallycorresponds to a process of making the changes that were made on thesecondary branch (relative to a common earlier base), but instead usinga “sibling” branch as the new base to be modified. In other words,rebasing effectively “replays” changes from the secondary branch (e.g.,stored in the document revision queue 314) onto another branchsequentially in the order they were introduced, whereas merging takesthe endpoints of the branches and simply merges them together.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 , the first document and the seconddocument have their own respective secondary branches (“Doc1 DraftBranch” and “Doc2 Draft Branch”). However, in other embodiments, two ormore documents within a workspace are part of a same branch. In someembodiments, a branch for an entire workspace is created and latermerged or rebased with another branch, or maintained separately.

At block 710 and block 730, respectively, User1 and User2 requestrevisions to the first document, analogously to blocks 610 and 630.Similarly, at blocks 720 and 740, User2 and User4 request revisions tothe second document, analogously to blocks 620 and 640. The revisionscorresponding to the first document are stored in the document revisionqueue 314, in an embodiment, and the revisions corresponding to thesecond document are stored in a corresponding document revision queue(not shown). In some other embodiments, the document revisions for thefirst document and the second document are stored in a same database orcentral repository, but are flagged as being limited to a particularbranch, for example, using a branch identifier that uniquely identifiesthe branch.

At block 750, User1 requests a merge of the secondary branch of thefirst document with the main branch and the revisions stored in thedocument revision queue 314 are merged or rebased with those in the mainbranch. At block 755, the frontend increments the workspace revisioncounter 340. In this embodiment, the separate revisions of the firstdocument at blocks 710 and 730 are combined into a same request for arevision and correspond to a same revision number (“75”) for theworkspace 310. Similarly, the separate revisions of the second documentat blocks 720 and 740 are combined into a same request (block 760) for arevision and correspond to a same revision number (“76”, block 765) forthe workspace 310. The requests at blocks 750 and 760 identify therevisions to be incorporated into the main branch by using a branchidentifier that corresponds to the branch.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram showing a sequence 800 of revisions todocuments and integration of those revisions into other branches usingthe workspace revision counter 340, according to an embodiment. In theembodiment shown in FIG. 8 , a first document (“Doc1”) is provided forediting to various clients (including Users 1 and 2) by a frontend userinterface (“frontend”). In some embodiments, the frontend user interfaceis provided by the first computing device 100, the fifth computingdevice 106, or another suitable computing device. In some embodiments,the clients utilize respective ones of the fourth computing devices 104a. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 8 , User1 and User2 modify the firstdocument via respective user interfaces. Although only one documents andtwo clients are shown, in other embodiments, the frontend may providehundreds of documents to hundreds of clients concurrently.

At block 810, the first user (User1) makes revisions to a secondarybranch of the first document (e.g., a “private” branch) that are storedseparately from other revisions by the second user (User2), which areperformed at block 820. At block 830, the first user requests that thechanges from their secondary branch be incorporated into the main branchin a manner similar to that described above with respect to block 750.At block 840, the frontend increments the workspace revision counter340.

In contrast to the merging of a secondary branch into the main branch(e.g., a “fan-in” action), at block 850, the revisions to the mainbranch that were fanned in are “fanned out” to the secondary draft ofthe second user. In various embodiments, the fanning out process is amerge process or a rebase process, as described above.

At block 860, the second user (User2) makes revisions to a secondarybranch of the first document that are stored separately from therevisions by the first user. At block 870, the second user incorporatesthe changes from their secondary branch into the main branch in a mannersimilar to that described above with respect to block 830. At block 880,the frontend increments the workspace revision counter 340.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram showing a sequence 900 of revisions todocuments using a workspace revision counter and workspace revisionqueue where temporary revisions are displayed, according to anembodiment. In some scenarios, utilization of the workspace revisionqueue 330 reduces performance (e.g., longer processing times, longerqueue times before a revision is performed) due to higher memoryrequirements for data structures associated with the workspace 310. Inan embodiment, for example, a single RTree or causal tree is shared forthe plurality of documents in the workspace 310 and has a larger sizethan separate RTrees for the documents. Additionally, contention foraccess to the RTree by different documents being revised at the sametime may increase the queue times for a revision to be processed.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 9 , the computing device 200 isconfigured to perform “optimistic” revisions at the document level, butidentify those revisions as being “inconsistent” within the userinterface until the revision has been processed and determined to beconsistent at the workspace level. The optimistic revisions arerevisions that are received from a user for a displayed document (e.g.,a secondary branch displayed on a user interface 104 a), performed forthe displayed document and updated on the user interface 104 a, butwithout fully updating formulas or links in the displayed document thatrefer to other documents, other sections of documents, or externalsources. Optimistic revisions provide improved feedback to the user(i.e., near real-time, without having to wait for changes to propagatethrough the workspace revision queue), but may be incorrect if they relyon the results of a formula calculation or link that has not completed.

As one example, a cell B1 in a first sheet (S1B1) and a cell B3 of asecond sheet (S2B3) contains formulas as follows:

S1B1 = SUM(S1A1, S1A2, S2B3)

S2B3 = S1A1 * 3

where S1A1 corresponds to a cell A1 of the first sheet with an initialvalue of “2”, S1A2 corresponds to a cell A2 of the first sheet having aninitial value of “5”. In this example, the cell S2B3 has an initialvalue of “6” (2 * 3) and the cell S1B1 has an initial value of “13”(2+5+6). When the user revises cell S1A1 to a value of “4”, anoptimisticrevision indicates a new value of “15” (4+5+6), using theupdated value of cell S2A1 but without an update to the value referencedin the second sheet (S2B3). In this example, the value of “15” is shown,but with a temporary identification on the displayed document thatindicates that the value is a temporary revision, not a final revision(i.e., with an updated value from cell S2B3). Once the final revisionhas been propagated, where S2B3 is updated to “12” (4*3) and S1B1 isupdated to 21 (4+5+12), the temporary identification is removed.Examples of a temporary identification include a different font color orfont face, a different background color, a box that surrounds the value,underlining, or other suitable visual indication.

At blocks 910, 920, 930, and 940, various users revise first and seconddocuments and send requests for the revisions to the frontend, in amanner similarly to that described above with respect to blocks 710,720, 730, and 740. In the embodiment of FIG. 9 , however, the revisionsat blocks 910, 920, 930, and 940 are optimistic or temporary until thecomputing device 200 has finalized the revisions, for example, byupdating formulas and links contained within an RTree for the workspace310. At blocks 910, 920, 930, and 940, the temporary revisions aremarked as “inconsistent,” as discussed above. Moreover, updates to theworkspace revision queue 330 are marked as inconsistent until therevisions have been finalized.

In some embodiments, a separate process is performed for finalizing therevisions using the workspace revision queue, for example, awrite-behind consistency process. The write-behind consistency processtraverses the entirety of the RTree for the workspace 310 and updatesformulas, links, or both formulas and links. In an embodiment, thefrontend is provided by the productivity server 100 and the write-behindconsistency process is performed by the database server 106. When thewrite-behind process is complete, the database server 106 marks theworkspace revision queue 330, or a particular revision therein, as beingconsistent. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 9 , the write-behindconsistency process is shown performing separate final revisions forblocks 910, 920, 930, and 940 at blocks 950, 960, 970, and 980,respectively.

In some embodiments, causing the revision to be performed includesqueuing a temporary copy of the revision in a document revision queuethat is specific to the document corresponding to the revision. In anembodiment, for example, the document revision queue corresponds to thedocument revision queue 314. A temporary revision is performed on acomputing device that displays a secondary branch of the documentcorresponding to the revision, without performing a revision on acorresponding main branch of the document. In an embodiment, forexample, the productivity server 100 performs the temporary revision ona branch of the first document at block 910, without performing a finalrevision at block 950 (i.e., before the final revision has beenperformed). In other embodiments, the temporary revision corresponds tothe blocks 920, 930, or 940 of FIG. 9 . The revision is queued as afinal revision in the workspace revision queue 330 and performed on themain branch, for example, corresponding to blocks 950, 960, 970, or 980of FIG. 9 .

In some embodiments, a received request for a revision indicates arevision to two or more documents. In an embodiment, for example, therequest is for a revision to a link where the revision corresponds to asource element within a first document and a destination element withina second document. The link revision is initially queued in the firstdocument revision queue that is specific to the document containing thesource element of the link (e.g., the document being edited by the userthat makes the request). In an embodiment, this document revision queueis processed by the frontend provided by the productivity server 100.The link revision is initially identified as being “inconsistent” untilthe write-behind consistency process, performed by the database server106, further processes the revision and determines that the revision isconsistent with other revisions, links, and/or formulas. In anembodiment, the link revision is queued in the workspace revision queue,the write-behind consistency process traverses the RTree for theworkspace 310 for the link revision, and queues the link revision in adocument revision queue that is specific to the second documentcontaining the destination element.

In some embodiments, revisions or updates to the workspace 310 thatoriginate outside of the workspace 310 are also handled using thewrite-behind consistency process. In this way, an update to an externaldocument (e.g., outside of the workspace 310) that is relied upon by adocument within the workspace 310 is associated with a final revisionand reference number for the workspace revision counter 340. In variousembodiments, the external document is located on a remote server, cloudservice, in a different workspace (e.g., in the workspace 350), or othersuitable location.

As discussed above, in some embodiments, the computing device 200utilizes an RTree as a data structure to store electronic documents ofthe workspace 310. In an embodiment, the computing device 200 utilizesthe RTree for maintaining formulas that reference different cells. Inanother embodiment, the computing device 200 utilizes the RTree formaintaining both formulas and links to different cells. In thisembodiment, a single RTree is utilized for maintaining formulas andlinks throughout the plurality of documents of the workspace 410. Thisapproach improves detection of circular references across all documentswithin the workspace 310 and also improves the flow of values from onedocument to another document over links and formulas. In someembodiments, the computing device 200 maintains separate RTrees (e.g.,one or more RTrees per document), but links the RTrees by utilizing acommon reference time.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example method, implemented on aserver, for maintaining links and revisions for a plurality ofdocuments, according to an embodiment. In some embodiments, the method1000 is implemented by the productivity server 100 of FIG. 1 , whichinteracts with the database server 106 and the client devices 104. FIG.10 is described with reference to FIG. 1 for explanatory purposes. Inother embodiments, however, the method 1000 is implemented by anothersuitable computing device.

At block 1002, requests are received that indicate revisions to becarried out on the plurality of documents. In an embodiment, theplurality of documents corresponds to the plurality of documents in thedocument table 320 (FIG. 3 ). In some embodiments, at least one of therequests correspond to revisions for different documents of theplurality of documents, for example, the first document 114 and thesecond document 116. In various embodiments, the requests correspond toblocks 610, 620, 630, or 640 of FIG. 6 , blocks 710, 720, 730, 740, 750,or 760 of FIG. 7 , blocks 810, 820, 830, 850, 860, or 870 of FIG. 8 , orblocks 910, 920, 930, or 940 of FIG. 9 .

At block 1004, a workspace revision counter that is shared by theplurality of documents is incremented. In an embodiment, the workspacerevision counter indicates a revision state of the plurality ofdocuments. In some embodiments, the workspace revision countercorresponds to the workspace revision counter 340. In variousembodiments, incrementing the workspace revision counter 340 correspondsto blocks 615, 625, 635, or 645 of FIG. 6 , blocks 755 or 765 of FIG. 7, blocks 840 or 880 of FIG. 8 , or blocks 915, 925, 935, or 945 of FIG.9 .

At block 1006, the revision is queued in a workspace revision queue thatis shared by the plurality of documents. In an embodiment, the workspacerevision queue corresponds to the workspace revision queue 330.

At block 1008, the revision indicated by the request is caused to beperformed on one or more documents of the plurality of documents thatcorrespond to the request.

In some embodiments, the method 1000 further includes displaying atemporary identification that corresponds to the temporary revision onthe displayed document and indicates that the temporary revision is notthe final revision. The temporary identification is removed from thedisplayed document when the final revision has been performed. In anembodiment, for example, a temporary revision is shown on a computingdevice using a different font color or font face, a different backgroundcolor, a box that surrounds the value, underlining, or other suitablevisual indication as the temporary identification at block 910, and thetemporary identification is removed at block 950. In some embodiments,at least some user interface features of a user interface on which thedocument is displayed are disabled while at least some temporaryidentifications are displayed. In an embodiment, for example, userinterface features such as generating a report based on the plurality ofdocuments, exporting the plurality of documents, or other actions aretemporarily disabled until the revisions have been finalized.

In an embodiment, the method 1000 further includes receiving a revisionfor data that is external to the plurality of documents and linked fromat least one of the plurality of documents. In an embodiment, theexternal data corresponds to data from an external workspace, forexample, the workspace 350. In another embodiment, the external datacorresponds to data from a remote server, cloud service, or othersuitable location. The workspace revision counter is incremented basedon the revision for the external data. The revision for the externaldata is queued in the workspace revision queue, i.e., the workspacerevision queue 330.

In some embodiments, a document revision or a series of documentrevisions can be generated with inputs by a reviewer. In someembodiments, a reviewer can provide inputs such as, comments, edits,edits with mark-ups, translations and/or other document review orrevision actions to a document or a section of the document. As usedherein, a document generated as a result of a reviewer’s review and/orrevision actions is referred to as a secondary document. In someexamples, the document to be reviewed is a mainline document, which is amaster copy of a set of related documents. The mainline document and thesecondary documents are collectively a set of related documents. In someexamples, the document is a blackline document, or referred to as acomparison document, which is a revision to a document showing mark-upsof changes (e.g., additions, modifications, and deletions). A blacklinedocument is a type of a secondary document. In certain examples, asecondary document may be a review document which includes comments to adocument (e.g., a mainline document, a secondary document) or a documentsection. In some examples, a secondary document is a comparison reviewdocument that includes comments and/or revisions to a blacklinedocument. In certain examples, a secondary document is a translationdocument that includes translations of a document (e.g., a mainlinedocument, a secondary document) or a document section.

In certain embodiments, a document or a plurality of related documentsare associated with a branch model, which maintain revisionrelationships, comments, edits, edits with mark-ups, translations,and/or other relationships. FIG. 11A shows one example of a branchmodel, in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure.In certain embodiments, the branch model can be implemented by acomputing device (e.g., the computing device 200 in FIG. 2 , thecomputing devices in FIG. 1 , etc.). As illustrated, the branch model1100A is related to a primary document 1110 (e.g., a mainline document,a secondary document, etc.) associated with document ID 1 and asecondary document 1120 associated with document ID 2. In some examples,the primary document 1110 is a mainline document. In some examples, theprimary document 1110 is not a mainline document but is a secondarydocument. The primary document is associated a branch 1118, or referredto as a primary branch. In some variations, the branch 1118 is amainline branch, or referred to as a main branch, in the branch model1100A. The secondary document 1120 is associated with as a secondarybranch 1128 in the branch model 1100A. In some examples, the primarydocument 1110 and/or the secondary document 1120 can be one of a reviewdocument, an edited document with mark-ups (or referred to as acomparison document or a blackline document), a comparison reviewdocument, a translation document, and other documents generated based onthe mainline document.

In certain embodiments, each branch in the branch model 1100 includes abranch type and one or more nodes. In some implementations, each node isassociated with a revision of a document (e.g., revision 1 of document1110) In some examples, each branch in the branch model 1100 isassociated with a document with a document identifier. In someembodiments, the primary branch 1118 includes one or more nodes 1111,1112, 1113, 1114, and 1115, where each node is associated with arevision of the primary document 1110. In some cases, each node isassociated with a revision of a document. For example, node 1111 isassociated with revision 1 of the document of document ID 1 (e.g.,mainline document). For example, node 1112 is associated with revision 2of the document of document ID 1 (e.g., mainline document). For example,node 1113 is associated with revision 3 of the document of document ID 1(e.g., mainline document). For example, node 1114 is associated withrevision 4 of the document of document ID 1 (e.g., mainline document).For example, node 1115 is associated with revision 5 of the document ofdocument ID 1 (e.g., mainline document).

In certain embodiments, the secondary branch 1128 includes one or morenodes 1124 and 1125, where each node associated with a revision of thesecondary document. For example, node 1124 is associated with revision 4of the document of document ID 2 (e.g., a secondary document). Forexample, node 1125 is associated with revision 5 of the document ofdocument ID 2 (e.g., a secondary document). In some examples, the branch1118 is a primary branch that the secondary branch 1128 is generatedbased on. In certain examples, the secondary branch 1128 is generatedbased on a revision of the primary document 1110. For example, thesecondary branch 1128 is generated based on revision 3 of the primarydocument 1110 and linked to node 1113. In some examples, the branch 1118is of a secondary branch type. In one example, the branch 1118 is of acomparison branch type and the branch 1128 is of a comparison reviewbranch type.

In some implementations, a reviewer is only granted a permission toaccess certain section(s) of a document. In some examples, a reviewerdoes not have access to the mainline document, but only have access tocertain section(s) of a document. In some examples, a reviewer isgranted access to the mainline document or all sections of a document.

In some embodiments, a branch in a branch model includes a branch typeand one or more nodes. In some variations, the branch type includes amainline branch type associated with the mainline document (e.g., amaster document) and a secondary branch type associated with a secondarydocument (e.g., a comparison document, a review document, a translationdocument, etc.). In certain variations, the secondary branch typefurther includes a review branch type, a comparison branch type, acomparison review branch type, a translation branch type, and otherbranch types associated with a secondary document. In someimplementations, the secondary branch type is associated with a purpose(e.g., review, blackline, translate, etc.) of generating a branch (e.g.,a divergence) in the branch model. In some examples, the permissiongranted to a reviewer is associated with the branch type.

In certain embodiments, the review branch type indicates a branchgenerated for reviewing a document. In some examples, a reviewer canonly add comments during a review and cannot make edits (e.g.,additions, modifications, or deletions) to the document being reviewed.In some examples, a reviewer can make additions, modifications, and/ordeletions to the document being reviewed and add, modify, or deletecomments from the document to be reviewed. In one example of thesecondary document 1120 being a review document represented by thereview branch 1128, the one or more nodes 1124 and 1125 are associatedwith document data structures (e.g., RTree, causal tree, causal graph,cells, etc.) containing comments provided by the reviewer. In oneexample of the secondary document 1120 being a review documentrepresented by the review branch 1128, the one or more nodes 1124 and1125 associated with document data structures (e.g., RTree, causal tree,causal graph, cells, etc.) containing comments edits (e.g., additions,modifications, and/or deletions), and/or edits with mark-ups provided bythe reviewer.

In some embodiments, the comparison branch type indicates a branchgenerated for editing a document with mark-ups, or referred to as acomparison document (e.g., blackline document). In one example of thesecondary document 1120 being a comparison document represented by thecomparison branch 1128, the one or more nodes 1124 and 1125 areassociated with document data structures (e.g., RTree, causal tree,causal graph, cells, etc.) containing blacklines, such as mark-upsshowing additions, modifications, and deletions, provided by thereviewer.

In certain embodiments, the comparison review branch type indicates abranch generated for reviewing a comparison document (e.g., a blacklinedocument). In some examples, a reviewer provides comments to thecomparison document. In some examples, a reviewer can make additions,modifications, and/or deletions to the document being reviewed and add,modify, or delete comments from the document to be reviewed. In oneexample of the secondary document 1120 being a comparison reviewdocument represented by the comparison review branch 1128, the one ormore nodes 1124 and 1125 are associated with document data structures(e.g., RTree, causal tree, causal graph, cells, etc.) containingcomments provided by the reviewer. In one example of the secondarydocument 1120 being a comparison review document represented by thecomparison review branch 1128, the one or more nodes 1124 and 1125associated with document data structures (e.g., RTree, causal tree,cells, etc.) containing comments and/or changes (e.g., additions,modifications, and/or deletions) provided by the reviewer.

In some embodiments, the translation branch type indicates a branchgenerated for translating a document or a document section. In someexamples, a reviewer can provide transactions to the document or thedocument section. In one example of the secondary document 1120 being atranslated document represented by the translation branch 1128, the oneor more nodes 1124 and 1125 are associated with document data structures(e.g., RTree, causal tree, cells, etc.) containing translations providedby the reviewer.

In some embodiments, branch 1128 indicates a divergence from themainline branch 1118. In one example, branch 1128 in the branch model1100 includes a data structure illustrated in Table 1. The branch 1128includes a BranchID, a BranchedFromID, a BranchedFromRevision, and aBranchType. The BranchID is the identifier of the branch. TheBranchedFromID is the document identifier of the document (e.g.,mainline document, secondary document, etc.) from which the branch iscreated. The BranchedFromRevision is the document revision of thedocument from which the branch is created. For example, branch 1128 hasa BranchedFromID being the Document ID 1 and BranchedFromRevision being“3”.

TABLE 1 Field Type Length BranchID VARCHAR 255 BranchedFromID VARCHAR255 BrancedFromRevision BIGINT 20 BranchType INT 11

Using the branch model illustrated in FIG. 11A, the data structuresrepresenting the mainline document revision does not need to beduplicated. Instead, the revisions of a secondary document (e.g.,revisions 4 and 5 of the secondary document) are linked to the datastructures of the mainline document where the branch is generated.

In some embodiments, when an input (e.g., reviews, comments, blacklines,translations, etc.) from a reviewer is requested, a computing device(e.g., the computing device 200 in FIG. 2 , the computing devices inFIG. 1 , etc.) generates the secondary branch 1128 at a branch creationtime, based upon a node 1113 of the primary branch 1118. In someexamples, the node 1113 of the primary branch 1118 is associated with acurrent revision of the primary document 1110 at the branch creationtime. In some examples, when the input from a reviewer is received, thecomputing device generates a node (e.g., node 1124) associated with adocument revision incorporating the input and adds the node to thesecondary branch 1128. If the secondary branch 1128 exists, when theinput from a reviewer is received, the computing device generates a node(e.g., node 1125) associated with a document revision incorporating theinput and adds the node to the secondary branch 1128.

In certain embodiments, when an input from a reviewer is requested, thecomputing device checks whether a corresponding secondary branch 1128exists. In some examples, the secondary branch 1128 is corresponding tothe reviewer, a reviewer group, and/or the type of the input request. Insome examples, the secondary branch 1128 is corresponding to a revisionof the primary document and the type of the input request. If asecondary branch does not exist, the computing device generates thesecondary branch 1128 of a secondary branch type, where the secondarybranch type corresponds to the type of the input being requested. Insome examples, the computing device generates a node (e.g., node 1124)representing a document revision incorporating the input and adds thenode to the secondary branch. If the secondary branch 1128 exists, whenthe input from a reviewer is received, the computing device generates anode (e.g., node 1125) associated with a document revision incorporatingthe input and adds the node to the secondary branch 1128. In certainembodiments, the input can be selectively incorporated into the primarydocument 1110 as a revision. In some embodiments, the input can beselectively incorporated into a corresponding mainline document as arevision.

In some embodiments, when an input is received from a reviewer, thecomputing device checks whether a corresponding secondary branch 1128exists. If a secondary branch associated with the reviewer does notexist, the computing device generates the secondary branch 1128 of asecondary branch type corresponding to the type of the input. In someexamples, the computing device generates a node (e.g., node 1124)associated with a document revision incorporating the input and adds thenode to the secondary branch 1128. If the secondary branch 1128 exists,when the input from a reviewer is received, the computing devicegenerates a node (e.g., node 1125) associated with a document revisionincorporating the input and adds the node to the secondary branch 1128.

In certain embodiments, the computing device generates a noderepresenting a revision of the primary or mainline document based uponthe input and adds the node to the primary or mainline branch. In oneexample of the input being one or more comments from the reviewer, therevision of the primary or mainline document can be the primary ormainline document with the one or more comments. In one example of theinput being one or more comments from the reviewer, the revision of theprimary or mainline document can be the primary or mainline documentwith blacklines, where the blacklines are generated based on the one ormore comments. In one example of the input being one or more blacklinesfrom the reviewer, the revision of the primary or mainline document canbe the primary or mainline document with blacklines. In one examples ofthe input being translations from the reviewer, revision of the primaryor mainline document can be a localized (i.e., translated) version ofthe primary or mainline document or a document section of the primary ormainline document.

FIG. 11B shows another example of a branch model, in accordance withcertain embodiments of the present disclosure. In certain embodiments,the branch model 1100B can be implemented by a computing device (e.g.,the computing device 200 in FIG. 2 , the computing devices in FIG. 1 ,etc.). As illustrated, the branch model 1100B is related to a primarydocument 1110 (e.g., a mainline document, a secondary document, etc.)associated with document ID 1, a secondary document 1120 associated withdocument ID 2, a secondary document 1130 associated with document ID 3,a secondary document 1140 associated with document ID 4, and a secondarydocument 1150 associated with document ID 5. In some examples, theprimary document 1110 is a mainline document. In some examples, theprimary document 1110 is not a mainline document. The primary documentis associated a branch 1118, or referred to as a primary branch. In somevariations, the branch 1118 is a mainline branch, or referred to as amain branch, in the branch model 1100B.

The secondary document 1120 is associated with as a secondary branch1128 in the branch model 1100B. The secondary document 1130 isassociated with as a secondary branch 1138 in the branch model 1100B.The secondary document 1140 is associated with as a secondary branch1148 in the branch model 1100B. The secondary document 1150 isassociated with as a secondary branch 1158 in the branch model 1100B. Insome examples, the primary document 1110 and/or any one of the secondarydocuments (1120, 1130, 1140, 1150) can be one of a review document, anedited document with mark-ups (or referred to as a comparison documentor a blackline document), a comparison review document, a translationdocument, and other documents generated based on the mainline document.

In certain embodiments, each branch (e.g., 1118, 1128, 1138, 1148, and1158) in the branch model 1100 includes a branch type and one or morenodes. In some examples, each branch in the branch model 1100 isassociated with a document with a document identifier. In someembodiments, the primary branch 1118 includes one or more nodes 1111,1112, 1113, 1114, and 1115, where each node is associated with arevision of the primary document 1110. In some cases, each node isassociated with a revision of a document. For example, node 1111 isassociated with revision 1 of the document of document ID 1 (e.g.,mainline document). For example, node 1112 is associated with revision 2of the document of document ID 1 (e.g., mainline document). For example,node 1113 is associated with revision 3 of the document of document ID 1(e.g., mainline document). For example, node 1114 is associated withrevision 4 of the document of document ID 1 (e.g., mainline document).For example, node 1115 is associated with revision 5 of the document ofdocument ID 1 (e.g., mainline document).

In certain embodiments, the secondary branch 1128 includes one or morenodes 1124 and 1125, where each node associated with a revision of thesecondary document. For example, node 1124 is associated with revision 4of the document of document ID 2 (e.g., a secondary document). Forexample, node 1125 is associated with revision 5 of the document ofdocument ID 2 (e.g., a secondary document). In some examples, the branch1118 is a primary branch that the secondary branches 1128, 1138, 1148,and 1158 are generated based on. In some examples, the branch 1118 is ofa secondary branch type. For example, the branch 1118 is of a comparisonbranch type and the branch 1128 is of a comparison review branch type.

In some implementations, a reviewer is only granted a permission toaccess certain section(s) of a document. In some examples, a reviewerdoes not have access to the mainline document, but only have access tocertain section(s) of a document. In some examples, a reviewer isgranted access to the mainline document or all sections of a document.In some embodiments, each branch type is associated with a specificpermission. In certain embodiments, each branch is associated with aspecific permission. In some examples, a permission allows edits withmark-ups and comments. In certain examples, a permission only allowscomments. In some examples, a permission only allows translations.

In some embodiments, a branch in a branch model includes a branch typeand one or more nodes. In some variations, the branch type includes amainline branch type associated with the mainline document (e.g., amaster document) and a secondary branch type associated with a secondarydocument (e.g., a blackline document, a review document, a translationdocument, etc.). In certain variations, the secondary branch typefurther includes a review branch type, a comparison branch type, acomparison review branch type, a translation branch type, and otherbranch types associated with a secondary document. In someimplementations, the secondary branch type is associated with a purpose(e.g., review, blackline, translation, etc.) of generating a branch(e.g., a divergence) in the branch model.

In certain embodiments, the review branch type indicates a branchgenerated for reviewing a document. In some examples, a reviewer canonly add comments during a review and cannot make additions,modifications, or deletions to the document being reviewed. In someexamples, a reviewer can make additions, modifications, and/or deletionsto the document being reviewed and add, modify, or delete comments fromthe document to be reviewed. In one example, the secondary branch 1128is a review branch and the one or more nodes 1124 and 1125 areassociated with document data structures (e.g., RTree, causal tree,causal graph, cells, etc.) containing comments provided by the reviewer.In one example of the secondary document 1120 being a review documentrepresented by the review branch 1128, the one or more nodes 1124 and1125 associated with document data structures (e.g., RTree, causal tree,causal graph, cells, etc.) containing comments, edits (e.g., additions,modifications, and/or deletions), and/or edits with mark-ups provided bythe reviewer. In the example illustrated, the secondary branch 1128 islinked to the node 1113.

In one example, the secondary branch 1138 is a review branch and the oneor more nodes 1134 and 1135 are associated with document data structures(e.g., RTree, causal tree, causal graph, cells, etc.) containingcomments provided by the reviewer. In one example of the secondarydocument 1130 being a review document represented by the review branch1138, the one or more nodes 1134 and 1135 associated with document datastructures (e.g., RTree, causal tree, causal graph, cells, etc.)containing comments, edits (e.g., additions, modifications, and/ordeletions), and/or edits with mark-ups provided by the reviewer. In oneexample, the secondary branch 1128 is associated with a first group ofreviewers and the secondary branch 1138 is associated with a secondgroup of reviewers.

In some embodiments, the comparison branch type indicates a branchgenerated for editing a document with mark-ups, or referred to as acomparison document (e.g., blackline document). In one example, thesecondary branch 1128 is a comparison branch, the one or more nodes 1124and 1125 are associated with document data structures (e.g., RTree,causal tree, causal graph, cells, etc.) containing blacklines, such asmark-ups showing additions, modifications, and deletions, provided bythe reviewer. In one example, the secondary branch 1138 is also acomparison branch, and the one or more nodes 1134 and 1135 areassociated with document data structures (e.g., RTree, causal tree,causal graph, cells, etc.) containing blacklines, such as mark-upsshowing additions, modifications, and deletions, provided by thereviewer. In one example, the secondary branch 1128 is associated with afirst group of reviewers and the secondary branch 1138 is associatedwith a second group of reviewers. In the example illustrated, thesecondary branch 1138 is linked to the node 1113.

In certain embodiments, the secondary branch 1148 is a comparison branchassociated with a comparison between document revisions associated withthe secondary branch 1128 and document revisions associated with thesecondary branch 1138. In one example, the one or more nodes 1144 and1145 are associated with document data structures (e.g., RTree, causaltree, cells, etc.) containing comparisons of documents. In the exampleillustrated, the secondary branch 1148 is linked to the node 1113. Inone example, the revision 4 of document 1140 is a comparison document bycomparing the revision 4 of document 1120 with the revision 4 ofdocument 1130.

In some embodiments, the translation branch type indicates a branchgenerated for translating a document or a document section. In someexamples, a reviewer can provide transactions to the document or thedocument section. In one example, the secondary branch 1158 is atranslation branch, the one or more nodes 1153, 1154 and 1155 areassociated with document data structures (e.g., RTree, causal tree,cells, etc.) containing translations provided by the reviewer. In theexample illustrated, the secondary branch 1158 is linked to the node1112 and generated based on revision 2 of document 1110.

In some embodiments, the branch model 1100B supports various queries. Insome examples, the computing device conducts a query of certain reviewsand/or certain comparisons. In one example, the document revisionsassociated with the secondary branches 1128, 1138, and 1148 are queryresults in response to a query of certain reviews. In certain examples,the computing device conducts a query of translations. In one example,the document revisions associated with the secondary branch 1158 arequery results in response to a query of translations.

FIG. 12 illustrates one example of a document data structure 1200 usinga branch model, in accordance with certain embodiments of the presentdisclosure. As illustrated, the document data structure 1200 includes aplurality of document services, where each service is associated with adocument identifier and a document revision identifier. In someexamples, the plurality of document services include one or more of cellindices services 1222, link services 1224, comment services 1226,translation services 1228, and other services. The cell indices services1222 store and provide cell indices of a document revision. The linkservices 1224 store and provide links of a document revision. Thecomment services 1226 store and provide comments of a document revision.The translation services 1228 store and provide translations of adocument revision. In some embodiments, each service of the plurality ofservices 1220 is associated with a node in the branch model 1210, wherethe node in the branch model 1210 is associated with a respectivedocument revision.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating one example of a method 1300 forusing a branch model, in accordance with certain embodiments of thepresent disclosure. Aspects of embodiments of the method 1300 areperformed, for example, by a computing device (e.g., the computingdevices in FIG. 1 , the computing device 200 in FIG. 2 ). In someimplementations, one or more steps of method 1300 are optional and/ormodified by one or more steps of other embodiments described herein. Insome implementations, one or more steps of other embodiments describedherein are added to the method 1300. In some embodiments, the computingdevice obtains a branch model associated with a set of related documents(1310). In some examples, the set of related documents includes amainline document and one or more secondary document that are generatedby review and revision actions. In some examples, the branch modelcomprises one or more branches, where each branch of the one or morebranches comprises a branch type and one or more nodes. In certainexamples, each branch of the one or more branches is associated with adocument with a document identifier. In some examples, the one or morebranches comprise a mainline branch of a mainline branch type andassociated with a mainline document, where the mainline branch typeindicates a branch is associated with the mainline document that is themaster document.

In certain embodiments, the computing device sends an input request froma reviewer (1315). The input request can be a review of a document or adocument section, a comparison review of a document or a documentsection, a review of a blackline document or a document section in theblackline document, a translation of a document or a document section,and/or other review and revision request. The computing device may grantthe reviewer a permission to access the document or the document sectionaccording to the input request. In some examples, the document beingrequested for input is referred to as the primary document. In someexamples, the primary document is associated with a branch, or referredto as a primary branch.

In some embodiments, the computing device checks whether a correspondingsecondary branch exists (1320). In some cases, the secondary branch iscorresponding to the reviewer and/or the type of the input. In somecases, the secondary branch is corresponding to a revision of theprimary document and a type of the input request. If the secondarybranch does not exist, the computing device generates a secondary branch(1323) of a secondary branch type corresponding to the type of theinput, where the secondary branch is associated with a secondarydocument. In some examples, the secondary branch includes a branch type,a documentation identifier of the primary document, and a revisionidentifier of the document revision that the branch is created basedupon. In some variations, the secondary branch is generated based upon acurrent node of the primary branch at a branch creation time, where thecurrent node of the primary branch is associated with a current revisionof the primary document at the branch creation time. In certainvariations, the branch type comprises at least one of a mainline branchtype, a review branch type, a comparison branch type, a comparisonreview branch type, and a translation branch type.

In some implementations, the computing device further adds the secondarybranch to the branch model (1325). In some examples, the secondarybranch is added from the node associated with the revision of theprimary document that is requested input. In some examples, a secondarydocument with a unique document identifier is generated and associatedwith the secondary branch. In some variations, the secondary document isassociated with the node associated with the revision of the primarydocument that is requested input.

In certain embodiments, the computing device receives an inputassociated with the secondary document from the reviewer (1330). In someexamples, the computing device generates a node associated with asecondary document revision (e.g., a document revision of the secondarydocument) incorporating the input (1335). In some variations, a documentrevision incorporating the input is to include the comments from thereviewer in the document revision. In certain variations, a documentrevision incorporating the input is to include changes based upon thecomments from the reviewer in the document revision. In some variations,a document revision incorporating the input is to include theblackline(s) from the reviewer in the document revision. In certainvariations, a document revision incorporating the input is to includethe translations from the reviewer in the document revision or toreplace a part or all of the document with the translations from thereviewer in the document revision.

In some embodiments, the computing device adds the node associated withthe secondary document revision to secondary branch in the branch model(1340). In certain embodiments, the computing device generates a nodeassociated with a revision of a primary or mainline document based uponthe input and adds the node to the primary or mainline branch. In someexamples, the revision of the mainline document is populated to one ormore secondary documents.

In certain embodiments, each document revision is represented by one ormore document services such as cell indices services, comment services,link services, translation services, and/or other document services. Insome examples, each document service of a respective document revisionis associated with one of the one or more nodes in the branch model.

FIG. 14 is a data diagram of one example of a branch model 1400, inaccordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure. Asillustrated, the branch model 1400 includes a primary branch 1410 andsecondary branches 1420 and 1430. In some embodiments, each branch isrepresented by a data structure including a BranchID, a BranchedFromID,a BranchedFromRevision, and a BranchType. In one example, the primarybranch 1410 includes a data structure of data fields 1411, 1413, 1415and 1417, and data values 1412, 1414, 1416, and 1418. In one example,the primary branch 1410 is a mainline branch, such that the BranchType148 has the value of “Mainline”, the BranchedFromID 1414 has the valueof “<empty>” and the BranchedFromRevision 1416 has the value of“<empty>”.

The secondary branch 1420 includes a data structure of data fields 1421,1423, 1425 and 1427, and data values 1422, 1424, 1426, and 1428. In thisexample, the secondary branch 1420 is a branch from the primary branch1410, such that BranchedFromID 1424 has the value of “1022” being theBranchID of the primary branch 1410. The secondary branch 1420 isgenerated based on revision 10 as indicated by the BracnchedFromRevision1425 with a value 1426 of “10”. The secondary branch 1420 is a reviewbranch as indicated by the BranchType 1427 with a value 1428 of“Review”.

The secondary branch 1430 includes a data structure of data fields 1431,1433, 1435 and 1437, and data values 1432, 1434, 1436, and 1438. In thisexample, the secondary branch 1430 is a branch from the primary branch1410, such that BranchedFromID 1434 has the value of “1022” being theBranchID of the primary branch 1410. The secondary branch 1420 isgenerated based on revision 5 as indicated by the BracnchedFromRevision1435 with a value 1436 of “5”. The secondary branch 1430 is atranslation branch as indicated by the BranchType 1437 with a value 1438of “Translation”.

All references, including publications, patent applications, andpatents, cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the sameextent as if each reference were individually and specifically indicatedto be incorporated by reference and were set forth in its entiretyherein.

For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles of thedisclosure, reference has been made to the embodiments illustrated inthe drawings, and specific language has been used to describe theseembodiments. However, no limitation of the scope of the disclosure isintended by this specific language, and the disclosure should beconstrued to encompass all embodiments that would normally occur to oneof ordinary skill in the art. The terminology used herein is for thepurpose of describing the particular embodiments and is not intended tobe limiting of exemplary embodiments of the disclosure. In thedescription of the embodiments, certain detailed explanations of relatedart are omitted when it is deemed that they may unnecessarily obscurethe essence of the disclosure.

The apparatus described herein may comprise a processor, a memory forstoring program data to be executed by the processor, a permanentstorage such as a disk drive, a communications port for handlingcommunications with external devices, and user interface devices,including a display, touch panel, keys, buttons, etc. When softwaremodules are involved, these software modules may be stored as programinstructions or computer readable code executable by the processor on anon-transitory computer-readable media such as magnetic storage media(e.g., magnetic tapes, hard disks, floppy disks), optical recordingmedia (e.g., CD-ROMs, Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs), etc.), and solidstate memory (e.g., random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM),static random-access memory (SRAM), electrically erasable programmableread-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, thumb drives, solid statedrives, etc.). The computer readable recording media may also bedistributed over network coupled computer systems so that the computerreadable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion. Thiscomputer readable recording media may be read by the computer, stored inthe memory, and executed by the processor.

Also, using the disclosure herein, programmers of ordinary skill in theart to which the disclosure pertains may easily implement functionalprograms, codes, and code segments for making and using the disclosure.

The disclosure may be described in terms of functional block componentsand various processing steps. Such functional blocks may be realized byany number of hardware and/or software components configured to performthe specified functions. For example, the disclosure may employ variousintegrated circuit components, e.g., memory elements, processingelements, logic elements, look-up tables, and the like, which may carryout a variety of functions under the control of one or moremicroprocessors or other control devices. Similarly, where the elementsof the disclosure are implemented using software programming or softwareelements, the disclosure may be implemented with any programming orscripting language such as C, C++, JAVA®, assembler, or the like, withthe various algorithms being implemented with any combination of datastructures, objects, processes, routines or other programming elements.Functional aspects may be implemented in algorithms that execute on oneor more processors. Furthermore, the disclosure may employ any number ofconventional techniques for electronics configuration, signal processingand/or control, data processing and the like. Finally, the steps of allmethods described herein may be performed in any suitable order unlessotherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.

For the sake of brevity, conventional electronics, control systems,software development and other functional aspects of the systems (andcomponents of the individual operating components of the systems) maynot be described in detail. Furthermore, the connecting lines, orconnectors shown in the various figures presented are intended torepresent exemplary functional relationships and/or physical or logicalcouplings between the various elements. It should be noted that manyalternative or additional functional relationships, physical connectionsor logical connections may be present in a practical device. The words“mechanism”, “element”, “unit”, “structure”, “means”, and “construction”are used broadly and are not limited to mechanical or physicalembodiments, but may include software routines in conjunction withprocessors, etc.

The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”)provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate the disclosureand does not pose a limitation on the scope of the disclosure unlessotherwise claimed. Numerous modifications and adaptations will bereadily apparent to those of ordinary skill in this art withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as defined by thefollowing claims. Therefore, the scope of the disclosure is defined notby the detailed description of the disclosure but by the followingclaims, and all differences within the scope will be construed as beingincluded in the disclosure.

No item or component is essential to the practice of the disclosureunless the element is specifically described as “essential” or“critical”. It will also be recognized that the terms “comprises”,“comprising”, “includes”, “including”, “has”, and “having”, as usedherein, are specifically intended to be read as open-ended terms of art.The use of the terms “a” and “an” and “the” and similar referents in thecontext of describing the disclosure (especially in the context of thefollowing claims) are to be construed to cover both the singular and theplural, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In addition, itshould be understood that although the terms “first”, “second”, etc. maybe used herein to describe various elements, these elements should notbe limited by these terms, which are only used to distinguish oneelement from another. Furthermore, recitation of ranges of values hereinare merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referringindividually to each separate value falling within the range, unlessotherwise indicated herein, and each separate value is incorporated intothe specification as if it were individually recited herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method implemented by one or more processors,the method comprising: obtaining, by the one or more processors, abranch model associated with a set of related documents, the branchmodel comprising one or more branches, each branch of the one or morebranches comprising a branch type and one or more nodes, the one or morebranches comprising a primary branch associated with a primary documentand a secondary branch associated with a secondary document, the set ofrelated documents comprising the primary document having a firstdocument identifier and the secondary document having a second documentidentifier, the second document identifier being different from thefirst document identifier, the secondary branch being linked to a firstnode in the primary branch; receiving, by the one or more processors, aninput associated with the secondary document from a reviewer; andpopulating the input to the primary document; wherein the secondarybranch is associated with the first document identifier, a revisionidentifier associated with a revision of the primary document, and asecondary branch type corresponding to a type of the input.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the input comprises at least one of a commentassociated with the secondary document or a document section of thesecondary document, an edit to the secondary document or a documentsection of the secondary document, a comparison of the secondarydocument or a document section of the secondary document, and atranslation of the secondary document or a document section of thesecondary document.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the secondarybranch is associated with a permission of accessing the secondarydocument or a document section of the secondary document.
 4. The methodof claim 3, wherein the permission is based at least in part on a branchtype of the secondary branch.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein thepermission associated with the secondary branch is different from apermission associated with the primary branch.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein the one or more branches further comprise a third branchassociated with a third document and a third branch type, wherein thethird branch type is different from the secondary branch type.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the branch type comprises at least one of amainline branch type, a review branch type, a comparison branch type, acomparison review branch type, and a translation branch type.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: generating, by the one or moreprocessors, a second node, the second node associated with a documentrevision of the secondary document incorporating the input; and adding,by the one or more processors, the second node to the secondary branch.9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: generating, by the one ormore processors, a third node associated with a revision of the primarydocument based upon the input; and adding, by the one or moreprocessors, the third node to the primary branch.
 10. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the set of related documents are represented by one ormore document services, wherein each document service of the pluralityof document services is associated with one of the one or more nodes inthe branch model.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or moredocument services comprise at least one of cell indices services, linkservices, comment services, and translation services.
 12. A computingdevice comprising: one or more memories storing instructions; and one ormore processors configured to execute the instructions to performoperations comprising: obtaining, by the one or more processors, abranch model associated with a set of related documents, the branchmodel comprising one or more branches, each branch of the one or morebranches comprising a branch type and one or more nodes, the one or morebranches comprising a primary branch associated with a primary documentand a secondary branch associated with a secondary document, the set ofrelated documents comprising the primary document having a firstdocument identifier and the secondary document having a second documentidentifier, the second document identifier being different from thefirst document identifier, the secondary branch being linked to a firstnode in the primary branch; receiving an input associated with thesecondary document from a reviewer; and populating the input to theprimary document; wherein the secondary branch is associated with thefirst document identifier, a revision identifier associated with therevision of the primary document, and a secondary branch typecorresponding to a type of the input.
 13. The computing device of claim12, wherein the input comprises at least one of a comment associatedwith the secondary document or a document section of the secondarydocument, an edit to the secondary document or a document section of thesecondary document, a comparison of the secondary document or a documentsection of the secondary document, and a translation of the secondarydocument or a document section of the secondary document.
 14. Thecomputing device of claim 12, wherein the secondary branch is associatedwith a permission of accessing the secondary document or a documentsection of the secondary document.
 15. The computing device of claim 14,wherein the permission is based at least in part on a branch type of thesecondary branch.
 16. The computing device of claim 14, wherein thepermission associated with the secondary branch is different from apermission associated with the primary branch.
 17. The computing deviceof claim 12, wherein the one or more branches further comprise a thirdbranch associated with a third document and a third branch type, whereinthe third branch type is different from the secondary branch type. 18.The computing device of claim 12, wherein the branch type comprises atleast one of a mainline branch type, a review branch type, a comparisonbranch type, a comparison review branch type, and a translation branchtype.
 19. The computing device of claim 12, where the operations furthercomprise: generating a second node, the second node associated with adocument revision of the secondary document incorporating the input; andadding the second node to the secondary branch.
 20. The computing deviceof claim 19, where the operations further comprise: generating, by theone or more processors, a third node associated with a revision of theprimary document based upon the input; and adding, by the one or moreprocessors, the third node to the primary branch.
 21. The computingdevice of claim 12, wherein the set of related documents are representedby one or more document services, wherein each document service of theplurality of document services is associated with one of the one or morenodes in the branch model.
 22. The computing device of claim 21, whereinthe one or more document services comprise at least one of cell indicesservices, link services, comment services, and translation services.